County: Louth Site name: DROMIN
Sites and Monuments Record No.: SMR 18:14 Licence number: 99E0508
Author: Finola O'Carroll, Cultural Resource Development Services Ltd.
Site type: Hearth and Habitation site
Period/Dating: Medieval (AD 400-AD 1600)
ITM: E 702959m, N 789454m
Latitude, Longitude (decimal degrees): 53.844354, -6.435412
The site is adjacent to a church and graveyard on a small rise. Pre-development test-trenching was undertaken for a proposed house, 17m to the east of the church and graveyard site.
Five trenches were excavated by mechanical digger. Initially, trenches were excavated along the foundation plan of the house, but on the discovery of archaeological deposits on the west side of the site, testing was extended a further 8.5m to the east.
Trenching demonstrated the existence of intact features of probable medieval date. These were a hearth that was partly exposed by the trench and, in a second cutting, a layer of grey, silty loam containing animal bone and some medieval pottery overlying a stony surface that overlay subsoil. These features, and a possible cut for a ditch that abutted them and had a separate stony fill, extended into a third cutting. They occurred over an area c. 10m x 6m and coincided with the level ground that was also the highest part of the field. Accordingly, the location of the house was moved an additional 10m to the east of its original position.
There were no intact features on the east side of the site, and the decreasing depth of topsoil in that direction indicates that recent ploughing, which had left visible ploughmarks in the subsoil, would have severely impinged on surviving features.
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